Addition to Chapter 28

(Added October 12, 2024)

Integrity forms the Backbone or Structure of a Healthy Culture

The word “integrity” is widely associated with strength or firmness in many fields. One engineering company defines structural integrity as “the ability of a structure to withstand its intended load without experiencing failure.” When a bridge or building “loses integrity,” this means it is close to collapse. Integrity and security are also closely tied; for example, the US Army recognizes that “maintaining the integrity of… communications [is] known as Communications Security.” When anything loses integrity, it has been breached and is close to failure or collapse.

Researchers also describe integrity as part of a person’s emotional strength. One psychiatrist defines integrity as “maintaining an integrated, whole self — bringing oneself ‘wholeheartedly’ to a situation.” Other researchers have illustrated how a person’s integrity allows them to maintain a “solid sense of self and emotional balance.” Thus a person without integrity is somehow not integrated or whole, or somehow not solid or balanced.

Whether in engineering, war, individual psychology, or many other settings, integrity is commonly recognized as the essence of something’s structure. Anything without integrity is unreliable, prone to collapse, or not solid. The same is true for healthy cultures.

Just as a bridge requires structural integrity to remain strong, and military communications require integrity to remain secure, human cultures require integrity to remain healthy.

Chapter 4 showed how agreements and integrity allow healthy cultures to set boundaries. People can agree to protect each other from attack, and uphold norms of appropriate behavior, but will they actually keep their agreements? Integrity allows people to uphold important agreements, and thus I believe integrity forms the structure of any healthy culture. Can I rely on my neighbors to support me if enemies approach? If one neighbor acts disrespectfully, can I rely on the rest of my neighbors to stand in solidarity with me, and ensure that everyone enjoys a baseline of mutual respect?

This all comes down to integrity. Do people consistently speak the truth and keep their promises, even when it might be uncomfortable or dangerous? If not, then I cannot trust my neighbors, and I’m on my own. When people consistently show integrity, then everybody can relax into a deep trust of each other. We know that we rely on each other no matter what comes, and this is part of what it means to live in a healthy culture.

Unhealthy cultures don’t train people to have deep integrity. In fact, some kinds of integrity are forbidden. When someone behaves inappropriately, rulers may or may not order the police to take care of it, and everyone else is forbidden from responding. After all, only the police are allowed to enforce the law. No one else is allowed to hold people accountable for inappropriate behavior or uphold the rules of their culture.

In a culture without rulers, how would people protect each other and stand for a culture of mutual respect? I believe it comes down to integrity: people simply make agreements for how they will live together, and they hold each other to a high standard of integrity to ensure everybody upholds those agreements.

Of course, it is not possible to make agreements to cover every scenario and everything that could go wrong. This is where Integrity of Service comes in.

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